Brad Bookout was born in Muncie, Ind., and now lives in Yorktown. He is a lifelong resident of Indiana's 6th District, where his family has owned a home-building business for four generations. He earned a bachelor's at Ball State University.

Bookout is a certified master homebuilder and worked in the family business for 15 years. After the economy soured, he turned his focus to economic development, becoming a consultant.

He served two terms on the Delaware County Council, then served as assistant director of business development for the Muncie-Delaware County Economic Development Alliance.

Bookout and his wife, Lisa, have three children.

Brad Bookout defeated four other Democratic opponents in the May 2012 primary, taking 31 percent of the vote.

Bookout is running for Congress because he says there is a great need for economic development. He calls job creation his top priority, saying his campaign slogan is "Jobs. Jobs. Jobs." He says the economy must be built through the private sector with financially self-sustaining businesses that help provide good jobs.

He cites too much partisanship as one of the biggest problems in Congress. He says legislation isn't needed to fix much of what ails the economy, instead emphasizing finding news new ways for people to work together.

Bookout says the 6th District should focus on creating and attracting industries that produce goods and services largely immune from substitution with cheap imports.

He proposes barring elected officials, their immediate family, and their paid staff from soliciting political funds or participating in political fund raising activities Monday through Friday, saying they should be focused on doing the jobs they were elected to do.

He says vacant offices that require confirmation by the Senate should be filled expeditiously and that any senator putting a hold on such a matter should have to declare it publicly. He also wants to protect Social Security.

Bookout says Congress must do its job and produce effective, timely, and prudent budgets. He says a balanced budget amendment that tries to turn the Constitution into some kind of robotic machine to do the legislators' job would just be trading one series of crises for another.